This is the Blog for MORRIS BERMAN, the author of "Dark Ages America". It includes current publications and random thoughts about U.S. Foreign Policy, including letters and reactions to publications from others.
A cultural historian and social critic, MORRIS BERMAN is the author of "Wandering God" and "The Twilight of American Culture". Since 2003 he has been a visiting professor in sociology at Catholic University of America in Washington, DC.
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May 10, 2017

300

Well, Waferinos, here we are, por fin: 300 posts, 11 years and one month, and nearly 3 million hits since the blog was launched. This is the greatest triumph since blogs began; perhaps, since human communication began. Nothing on the planet, or in the entire universe, can match the degree of spiritual evolution attained by 171 courageous Wafers. We are up; the trollfoons have been crushed into the dirt, like the disgusting roaches that they are.
And so, by popular demand, fasten your seat belts: we are now heading into our 2nd 11-year period. They laughed at the Wright Bros. as well; who is laughing now?
Arriba!
-mb

184 Comments:

al Qa'bong said...

Hello Wafers:

Here's a decent article on the results of the recent French election:

"Make no mistake about Macron: he is a nihilistic imperialist. In all the talk about him that’s the missing word -“imperialism”. However as an ex-investment banker (an ex-employee of the Rothschild mafia) he knows the the fundamental need of investors: imperialism. That’s what should concern us now. It goes unmentioned in the mainstream madhouse but Macron adds momentum to the drive for foreign wars and genocides."

I have a question. I hear a lot of criticism of progressives here. I've never considered myself a progressive, but I wonder how Wafers define them. It seems to me that you see them as Phil Ochs saw those liberals who loved themselves so much in that song of his. Am I close?

al Qa'bong I don't know the Phil Ochs song you're referring to; however, I'll play. I define a modern Prog as a believer in social justice issues and the advance of technology as a kind of salvation. Also big on Eco-warrior issues. All the while modern Progs buy wholeheartedly into Capitalism, mostly with a blind eye towards Capitalism's ill effects on society and its worldwide plundering. They believe in U.S. foreign policy just so long as a Democrat is in office. In other words, there is a huge disconnect in the world-view of modern Progs.

Congratulations! Jesus, what a milestone, yes? I wish I could send you a pastrami on rye w/cold slaw and Russian dressing, a side of potato salad, and a Cel-Ray to celebrate this moment. In any event, this is indeed the greatest blog in human history; up there w/the discovery of sex, the works of the prophet Mahavira, and the songs of Chuck Berry, I hafta say. If I may be so bold as to suggest that all Wafers light a candle this evening and knock back a few beers to commemorate this august occasion.

al--I don't know the Ochs song, but it sounds like he nailed it. The difference between a prog and a true leftist is the difference between someone who puts identity politics ahead of class politics and someone who is committed--truly committed--to the opposite. The former have no problem taking cash from corporations and big banks, while the latter never forget that those entities are the enemy, and in any society in which workers have no rights NOBODY has any rights, especially all those minority groups progs claim they love so much.

Now all of the sudden idiot progs are running around screaming bloody murder about the firing of Jim Comey, who just a week ago Hillary blamed for her loss to Trump despite the fact that by not sending the original case to a grand jury he was covering up for her, for which they thought he was a hero. Got all that? What a bunch of hypocritical douchebags.

This is the 4th or 5th fight to break out on an airline in just the last month. There have also been fights breaking out at malls. Just picture the day when everyone in America is involved in one giant brawl to the death.

In reference to the previous postings I can only say: Whoa there folks - I guess my comments about vaccines really hit a nerve! I never impugned cancer treatments. I specifically said I wasn’t against all vaccinations. I didn’t question the efficacy of vaccinations. What I did question is their safety because of toxic additives and the number of doses given to infants and young children.

The anger and implied insults expressed here because I dared to question the current paradigm are truly awe inspiring, but not surprising. In the immortal words of Jed McKenna, people don’t like to have their version of reality fucked with. Pope Urban VIII would be so proud.

Bill, we have absolutely no idea if Steve Jobs would still be alive if he had listened to cancer doctors. Maybe his time was up; yours obviously wasn’t. We just will never know.

Life is terminal. In the Bhagavad Gita Lord Krishna says “whatever is born must die,” something, especially Americans, seem to have forgotten: Memento Mori.

And with that, maybe we shd leave vaccines behind and move on. I don't think anyone is going to change their minds, yrself included. On the other hand, if there is a lot of energy for beating a dead horse...

jj-

In a sense, they already are. But in concrete terms, I think a brawl a day wd be gd evidence for The End (do we need more evidence?).

Bill-

Another bit of evidence is that the # of douche bags is increasing exponentially, on a daily basis. This too is fun to watch. 96% of Trump voters polled recently said they wd vote for him again; the rest are wearing pussy hats, and true leftists no longer exist. Tell me this isn't hilarious.

Well, the real question, with all due respect, is when are people going to bust out of this old paradigm of lib/prog-conservative and reorient themselves to the paradigm from which emanates the real gravitational pull.

Class is closer to the action, sure, but it is not the primary fault line either. The new fixation on that old battle line will just leave us in the time-worn rut of history repeating itself, of humans not being able/capable of making the kind of progress to which a conscious species should aspire and work toward.

Globalist/interventionist or not? Centralization or decentralization? Where people come down on this is what really matters. Really, until people start asking themselves that question, and with the urgency, circumspection and gravity it requires, all political, social and economic discourse and action will continue to be about as useful as punching a tornado.

Congrats on the milestone, Dr.B. I stand here, with pastrami on my breath, bemusement in my heart, and cheap beer in my bladder, at the ready for another 11.

Hi Morris. I read DAA and WAF. Very depressing, particularly because your main points (including the irreversibility of America's decline) are true. I have 1 question that's been haunting me for years: what should I do? I'm abroad now and enjoying my time away from America, but I'll have to return at some point. What should (forget "could" for now) the average person do? Raise awareness? Give up and live abroad? Do some V for Vendetta stuff?

americans are courteous and kind---On an american airline (united), Nicole Harper, a Kansas City emergency room nurse, got up to use the bathroom; however, a flight attendant told her to sit down because of turbulence. Harper told the stewardness that she has an overactive bladder and needed to use the toilet. The stewardness told her to go urinate in a cup.

Harper filled two cups with urine and afterward, an attendant told her to empty the cups in the bathroom, that she would be reported, fined, and that the pilot would meet with her after the flight. Harper was also informed that her seat would need to be professionally cleaned and that she would need to pay for all that.

Dr. Berman, congratulations on 300! As many posts as Sparta had soldiers at the Battle of Thermopylae.

Mr. Hicks, I've posted this song/vid on the blog before, but given the recent posts, it's worth resurfacing for those not up to speed on Phil Ochs: Love Me, I'm A Liberal. Here's an updated version to skewer today's progressives' hypocrisy. In the spirit of our limericks, I think we Wafers can actually do better!

I’ve lost track of daily shootings / There’s really too many to count.I think we really should do something / To squash the NRA’s clout. I’ll defend every last amendment / But the 2nd needs to be thrown out!So love me, love me love me, I’m a liberal!

Have you heard of the Democratic Socialists? / I love watching our numbers growThis country’s lost its darn mind / It’s time to stomp Government’s ego.But if you say the American experiment’s failed / You’re crazier than Uncle Bernie, our bro!So love me, love me, love me, I’m a liberal!

Until 2005 I taught first grade in a blue collar, mostly white suburban district. Many of my six-year-olds were suffering from a variety of physical and emotional problems.

For the sake of brevity, I picked out three examples. One student stood up on his chair, put scissors to his neck, and said, "I'm going to kill myself." Another student plucked out every hair on his eyelids, eye brows, head, and arms. He was allowed to wear a baseball cap because he looked like he had undergone cancer therapy. He was placed in a pediatric psychiatric hospital for a week. When he returned, he still had bizarre behaviors but now he barked like a dog all day long. A third student masturbated by rocking in her chair until sweat poured down her face. The sixth or seventh doctor (she had had multiple surgeries) was the psychiatrist who phoned me to ask if I thought she was depressed or anxious. I said my non-medical opinion was anxious because the child stated to me that she was "worried" about herself. That got her a new prescription and me a sheaf of hourly observations to fill out.

These and many other children were in pain that I could not help very much. (Divorce, poverty, parental drug and alcohol usage, sexual and emotional abuse, Mom trying to sell the baby brother for $10,000, etc.) I believe that there would be more children in despair since the 2008 crash. They are now in primary school.

While I understand your view, as a scientist who works as a patent attorney, I wanted to say that science doesn't always hold the answers. So, it's hard to paint the situation with one brush. Many cancer patients don't survive because they can't handle the harsh side effects of chemo. (referred to as compliance in the field). I'm sure you know this. I represent an inventor who has patented a nutritional diagnostic & regimen that has treated over 200 cancer patients. I can't describe the details here, but when I started working with her about 5 yrs. ago, I described it to laypeople as the approach Steve Jobs was trying to apply, but he didn't know his cancer profile's behavior to really affect cell proliferation. However, it wasn't nonsense. At the time, various practitioners were talking about extracts of broccoli, turmeric, etc., but they didn't know what tumor cells were consuming. More importantly, his problem was not mainly which medical foods to eat, but rather which common foods not to eat, while not starving himself. Meanwhile, patients of my inventor who were on death's door were having her perform the diagnostic without paying her. I was able to get her into a proper clinic that handles payment before treatment to prevent her from going broke. Also, at the time, established medical experts looked askance at any treatment that wasn't done with "hard chemistry." Now, companies are lining up to discuss with her acquisition/commercialization. So, while there are a lot of charlatans out there, it isn't B&W.

in Atlanta ga this wkend: the Jung society's lecturer [for $20 ?!] is actually a seminal analyst https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_BeebeHe also uses films to explore the culture's psychic side ... works like "The Anima in Film”, etc

The mere existence of monastic individuals is a challenge to the system and an inspiring example to others. Far from being defeatist, in a way it is the most helpful thing.

The world has always been too much for spiritual people - proto-Wafers, if you will. However, for most of history proto-Wafers had a way out, monasticism in some from. True monks, hermits, wandering sanyasis in India, pilgrims of various sorts, mystics, etc. Such people were even respected.

What is conspicuous about the modern world is that it no longer has a place for spiritual individuals who wish to opt out of the world-system. The modern world is alarmed and puzzled by such people, and wishes to suppress them.

What better way, then to serve and inspire others, and to challenge the system, then to show them the path back towards true monasticism, rejection of the "world"? Create the thing that is conspicuously absent in the modern world, choose the lifestyle that alone among all others is rejected by the modern world.

There's a cop down in Georgia arresting people for DUI on mere suspicion that they consumed marijuana when in fact they have not. When confronted with this fact, his department stated that by virtue of his one month of "drug recognition training," his judgement now trumps the scientific urine and blood drug tests administered to the false arrest victims.

More details and videos of the stops:http://www.11alive.com/news/investigations/the-drug-whisperer/437061710

The simple minded blind deference to authority in this country never ceases to astound me. Then again, I think way more people think the cops are like the guys on "Law and Order" vs the guys depicted in "Serpico." Damn you Eddy Bernays!

Rosegarden: Your story is downright heartbreaking. These children are our future cops, firemen, soldiers, politicians, nurses, doctors, coworkers, etc. If Trump is unsuccessful in flying the US of A into the side of the mountain, surely one of them will succeed.

Mike R: The flight attendant is lucky she didn't get fresh with a Wafer, as those urine cups would have ended up all over her shoes.

Fox News was so overjoyed to receive photographic evidence of female high school students giving lap dances to their male counterparts (at a black school no less) that it overcame their normal aversion to ever admit that a private charter school might be a complete scam:

Meanwhile, we have a new winner in the humping vehicles category, namely a guy who got caught removing some of the spark plug wires from cars so that they would run so rough he could then get his rocks off. Who says American ingenuity is dead?

I know this blog enjoys laughing at apps and useless junk, but there really is a lot to be said about the technology happening right now. For instance, I recently read a book on bitcoin called The Internet of Money which convinced me that the technology was worth having. This is because it's decentralized and outside of the control of the banking elite. This is dual process (alternative currency) at work. We'll never reach salvation, but we continue to slowly build roads away from the tyranny of these people who destroyed the economy. It's no coincidence that Satoshi Nakamoto (the inventor of bitcoin) released his invention in 2009. Food for thought: It's not all junk; a new Semiotics is becoming in front of us.

I've always wanted to hike the Appalachian Trail, but I've heard that during peak season it has become like a friggin frat party with trash and too many people and douches playing loud music all night ...

I agree with what Aaron said. Looking back over my experiences in this society over the past thirty years, the one take-away lesson that presents itself with all the subtlety of a falling anvi, as far as finding something outside of "money stuff" to give your life substantive purpose and meaning is concerned, is: There's NOTHING out there! NOTHING! The things such as prog delusions in which so many people wrap themselves up so very tightly are really only devices for diverting oneself from realizing that one simple, harsh truth. So I heartily agree that the only two options left are to just leave or become a monastic sort of individual.

"Every once in a (long) while a book comes out that rips the zeitgeist, shining on like a crazy diamond. Age of Anger, by Pankaj Mishra, author of the also-seminal From the Ruins of Empire, might as well be the latest avatar.

Think of this book as the ultimate (conceptual) lethal weapon in the hearts and minds of a rootless cosmopolitan Teenage Wasteland striving to find its true call as we slouch through the longest – the Pentagon would say infinite – of world war..."

Highly recommended, particularly for its discussion of Voltaire vs. Rousseau.

Congratulations on your 300th. Hope there's another 11 years of this blog! :^)

Well the Donald has gotten himself into hot water with the Russia Connections (both obviously fake and allegedly real). I would like to say there's nothing to this, but with Sally Yates, Preet Bharara and now James Comey getting shown the door right when their investigations got too close to Trump one has to conclude that where there's smoke, there's fire, even though or *because* Trump has been acting acting true to form: if anyone's disloyal or in the way, get rid of him. He certainly wants to run this country like an autocrat, i.e., like Vladimir Putin, although he's not nearly *half* as smart as the Russian president. In the end, he could get us all killed---all seven billion of us!

Further along this development in the news, here's the Acting FBI Director McCabe being grilled by Senate panelists: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zs9wNKlsft4.

To Dr. MB and all fellow Wafers Worldwide:Yes, America is in the process of failing bigly. One aspect has been how the elite are systemically looting. Here, in a paper on STEM Phd's we find the heart of the matter. Quoting, "Many of America’s largest corporations routinely distribute more than 100 percent of net income to shareholders, generating the extra cash by reducing cash reserves, selling off assets, taking on debt, or laying off employees. As I have shown, the only logical explanation for this buyback activity is that the stock-based pay that represents the vast majority of the remuneration of senior corporate executives incentivizes them to manipulate their companies’ stock prices, leaving most Americans worse off."...

"....the channeling of trillions of dollars of value created in U.S. nonfinancial corporations to the financial sector has opened up jobs on Wall Street that can provide quick income bonanzas for highly-educated members of the U.S. labor force, ....... Among the wealthiest of these Wall Street players are corporate predators—euphemistically known as “hedge-fund activists”—who have billions of dollars in assets under management with which they can attack companies to pump up their stock prices through the implementation of “downsize-and-distribute” allocation regimes and, even if it takes a few years, dump the stock for huge gains."

I am truly amazed at the staying power of this blog. Most blogs are going extinct like the telephone call, but this blog is the resistance. We only use old fashioned PC's.

At this point I have no doubt that America is in decline and getting worse by the day- but WaFERSS already knew that. In a recent Salon interview a Yale university historian by the name of Timothy Snyder is quite optimistic about his pessimism on American democracy by saying that we are witnessing none other than a slow motion coup. When Trump gets a new Yes Man as the head of the FBI that oughta nail democracy right in the ass while most republicans rejoice. In a recent Quinnipac poll conducted after Comey's abrupt termination by a White House that's suddenly concerned with crooked Hillary's email scandal being terribly mishandled by an overstepping and "showboat" FBI director the republicans approval of Trump's WH job is still going strong at 90% and he also has broad support on Trumpcare. Is it any wonder why the GOP is crickets on both issues? Their constituents have unbridled loyalty towards their "strong man" who has promised to make America Great Again.(white and male)

The airlines have an almost daily episode of unfriendliness now. People are also going postal every day - shooting even in nursing homes. Not even Alzheimer's sickened grandpa is safe. If grandpa can't even hope to die in peace inside of his nursing home - what's going to give?

What can I say: our WAFER rallying cry of Onwards and Downwards! while drinking Margaritas and Dos Equis xx from a safe distance- the fun side of the wall.http://www.salon.com/2017/05/11/a-coup-in-real-time-historian-timothy-snyder-says-the-comey-firing-is-trumps-open-admission-of-collusion-with-russia/

There is at least one other option (why folks around here seem to be so black-and-white about "leave or NMI, nothing else" I find a bit mystifying). It's a pretty poor option, but it's all I have, personally speaking, since I can neither leave nor NMI, and I've yet to conceive a fourth alternative (though my mind works on it daily). You can hope. There is always a possibility that a random (read: unpredictable, unforeseeable) phenomenon may open a door to something worthwhile. As I've opined here previously, one never can count on such remote potentials, but they'll do if that's all you've got -- or until you can conceive the fourth alternative.

Dr. B, Wafers, what is an NMI?I have been lurking for a few weeks because I haven't yet read WAF, but I thought I should join the fun. I know already from reading some of your articles and your posts in the blog that I will agree with the conclusions. Perhaps I can be a novice Wafer until I read it?

Dr B, I saw your request for help formatting your new book. I have indesign and am sending you an email, maybe I can be of help if you still need it.

While I understand the costs have been/will continue to be high, it seems that there's no way forward, but through. Not following the ideological tenants of scientific control mean embracing a collective mortality that would engulf the human race. (A Catch-22, I know.) While the trendiest death-cults preach the salvation of the earth from mankind, should we reverse global warming - say by spraying more particulates into the atmosphere (not ideal), or by launching into space sun shading technology to redirect away excess sunlight - we may soon be able to continue both the disgusting exploitation we've become accustomed to and the building of alternatives like bitcoin. It appears some middle ground between sublimation and becoming a Luddite is necessary just to sustain the planet for a newer system to emerge and replace capitalism. I hope this limbo is what's meant by "[hovering] over [the] abyss" of dual process. All I can say is that I hope technology will give us the control to reform/protect enough of the planet to continue killing each other. I'll be sure to paint "WAFer" on my drone!

Chemical signatures left behind in the bones of people living thousands of years ago suggest that the introduction of new commodities provided an opportunity for menhttps://www.scientificamerican.com/article/origins-of-male-domination-may-lie-in-food/

I humbly nominate Mr. Ismael Esquillen as a potential presidential candidate in 2020.

He's done a lot more than the vagina-hatted prog imbeciles--in a very short period of time.

As mastrubator-in-chief within the Lincoln tunnel, he successfully held up rush hr traffic for all the work stiffs--cars honking, corporate drones getting anxious, tons of "news" reports, etc..

He has his priorities straight; when the mood strikes-- block a major highway w/ your car and start playing with yourself. Maybe blast--God Bless the usa, or some other patriotic drivel as you reach climax.

Check out this video of a guy talking about his attempts to meet a woman in 2017 America by (GASP) talking to them! This reminded me of the part in Berman's book where he tried to be nice toa neighbor and the woman just stared at him. Enjoy!

I really don't agree. You might check out WAF ch. 3 for further elaboration, but the historical reality is that whatever the technology, it's the worst that dominates, not the best. Your solution is like trying to stay just a little bit pregnant, when the reality is a slippery slope that leads to garbage. TV is the classic case. I remember, in the 50s, all the talk abt how it was going to lead us to an Age of Enlightenment. Instead, we are just amusing ourselves to death with it (Neil Postman). Same baloney with the Net; now, 94% of its use is for porn. The real solution is to simply not own or use a cell fone. Of course, in the US, I wd encourage people to use it, since it is destroying the fabric of society, and this needs to accelerate in America. But surely not in Mexico or elsewhere. People are shocked when they discover I don't own one; this opens the door to a discussion of how destructive these toys are. The more discussions we have of this sort, the more likely that an anti-fone movement might get going. (Think of how we got rid of cigarette smoking in public places.) Long shot? Shorter than your solution--or so it seems to me.

Jack-

I tell u, I sometimes forget how fucked up American women are. I had an eyeful of this when I lived in DC, way back when, but it recently recurred with a gringa here in her late 40s. She was on her fone much of the time during our date, including ordering groceries from the supermarket. Here's a nice irony: her field is labor relations. When I told her about the articles in the London Daily Telegraph, about the conditions of the workers who mine the metals for smartfones (they die young, are horribly exploited, etc.), she just shrugged it off (let the workers die, I need my grocery delivery). Discussions a la Sherry Turkle re: cell phones and the destruction of silence, creativity, empathy, normal conversation--she wasn't interested. Finally, When I made some romantic joke (nothing off-color or anything like that; the sort of remark that might evoke a laugh from a non-American woman), she went nuts, told me I was weird. It never occurred to her that her (over)reaction might be weird. She wasn't attracted to me, as it turned out, but reflecting on her behavior, I realized I had dodged a bullet: we had 0 in common and our values were 180 degrees apart; it wd have been the relationship from hell. What is really depressing is that this woman, this behavior, is the norm in the US, and it's nothing short of sick. Chances of a wake-up moment for these gals is roughly negative infinity, I'm guessing. What wasted lives.

Jeff-

I'm kinda wondering what non-vigorous masturbation wd look like. There seems to be an epidemic of public meat-beating going on, and I can't help wondering if it's a political statement.

American women do not care much about the suffering of men or even about the suffering of other women. Of course, American men are not much better in that regard, but the women especially seem to be a concentration of cluster B personality disorders.

"Why do they say "to pleasure himself"? Why don't they just say, "beat his meat"?"

In Canada we say, "pulling the goalie."

I'm reading Matt Taibbi's "Insane Clown President" right now. I like how he compares Trump's tactics in the recent US election to TV wrestling. That's what I thought as well.

Taibbi's book is especially interesting, given that I just finished Thos. Wolfe's "You Can't Go Home Again." Wolfe wasn't exactly predicting Trump, but he suggested back in the 1930s that the USA was on course for something like Trump.

"The Obangas are starting a foundation whose work will include “training and elevating a new generation of political leaders in America,” Eric Schultz, an Obanga adviser, said in a statement. “President Obanga will deliver speeches from time to time. Some of those speeches will be paid, some will be unpaid, and regardless of venue or sponsor, President Obanga will be true to his values, his vision, and his record.”

Jesse, why didn't you do it?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBejRTDVqM4

Calling a sonomabitch a sonombitch...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hne-hG4raHI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfVULT8vdUkhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sA6MCjGEsTg

This Clinton-Obama midget of a prog telling us it is all Trump's fault.http://www.truthdig.com/avbooth/item/trump_banksters_seem_think_americans_forgot_banking_crisis_2008_20170503

Dreams From my Father -by Obanga."I have a Drone today. Double tap anyone?"

"There are some things in our nation and in our world to which I’m proud to be maladjusted and I hope all Wafers -the few and the only- will remain maladjusted. I never intend to adjust myself to the American madness." -MLK

Frankistan -- I'd be totally in favor of what that professor says should happen, just so as at the same time we impeach Harvard University and every fuckwit professor who works there. Fuck this bedwetting academic scumbag running around shrieking about how Donnie-boy was mean to poor old James Comey. Meanwhile, there was not so much as a peep out of the fucker when Obomba and his sick, vicious Secretary of State were out there droning thousands of civilians, bombing one country that was no threat to the U.S. and then turning another into a sectarian war riven hellhole. Fucking SLAVERY has become commonplace again in southern Libya because of a president who is no doubt this fucking asshole's hero, yet Trump should be impeached just for firing a monumental fuckup who wanted to waste even more government resources on a totally bullshit investigation? Hell, just 10 days ago we were wondering if Trump was going to start a nuclear war over North Korea and incinerate us all, which strikes me as being perhaps just a a tad more serious a threat to the republic that poor w'il Jimmy's butthurt feelings, but hey, I guess I'm just bit old fashioned.

I can't tell you how many times I've encountered this kid in the classroom. Minus the sledgehammer of course. But the same vacuous personality type, and on the same dysfunctional spectrum. It's the main reason I gave up teaching. Incidentally, this guy supposedly spent his whole life hypnotized by his phone, and playing video games.

Hello and hope you WAFERS are all well!Dear Dr. Berman hope your well too!

I guess the utter "falling into the abyss" for American society is continually a constant reveal thru the daily posting of WAFERS here on this DARK AGES AMERICA BLOG... is one of ever day being more and more amazed by the level and diversity of the depravity reached by so many individuals that collectively contribute to the "Twilight of American Culture"! Here's my two contributions to the list of wasted lives reaching nutness!Mother uses violence to send message to son who forgot her mothers day card! Next year he'll be sending her mothers day card in Jail!http://www.news1130.com/2017/05/14/police-mom-hits-son-who-didnt-give-her-mothers-day-card/Next is this lovely media story about firing Reporter for covering people preaching mass murder of people who are atheist! Got love those 'special rights' for protecting religious people from undue harassment! https://heatst.com/culture-wars/portland-reporter-fired-for-posting-video-of-muslim-speaker-saying-atheism-is-punishable-by-death/Now Speaking of enjoying all the Church goers "special rights".. well clearly not all Churches created equal! Killing Athiest is Okay but Free love is NOT!!http://nypost.com/2017/05/13/sex-club-posed-as-a-church-to-evade-the-cops-officials/?link=TD_heatst_articles.47942&utm_source=heatst_articles.47942&utm_campaign=circular&utm_medium=NYPOST

Everyday we find more ignorance in the American people, here's a survey in the NYT where only 36% of Americans can actually locate North Korea on a map. Interesting because several surveys have N.Korea as being viewed by Americans as America's #1 enemy. You'd think if you're going to hate someone, you'd might know where they live.

Yr rt. The average turkey is much smarter than the avg American, and much more spiritually evolved. But keep in mind that I did say, once, that the avg American's head was filled with warm baby diarrhea. I'm sticking to that assessment.

Discussion of the interactions between men and women (e.g., GSWH's date) reminded me of the extent to which first or early dates can be likened to job interviews, the essence of the hustling culture. While I can't speak for the female side, I'm well acquainted with the male side. It's a wonder things ever progress beyond two or three encounters. Both parties wishing to close the deal--here, to behave in such a way that the other party judges you someone they could do business with. And not a psychopath or mental defective.

That people are able to successfully move past the posturing and pretence to establish something more substantial is as wondrous a thing as we could hope to see. And that people are able to sustain a relationship over a long term is truly a miracle. Skidmarks and nose hair on one side, mood swings and formerly cute mannerisms on the other. A miracle indeed.

Not only do they carry neoliberal water, they parade around as an elite meritocratic university, yet one can buy their way in if their parents make a big enough donation or send them to the right prep school (http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2013/12/13/making-harvard-feeder-schools/).

Hi everyone, as a longtime lurker I've decided to join the party. Dr. B., appreciate your work very much.

A question I'd like to pose to the blog - Are there any "western" values worth saving, and if so - is it even possible for them to be saved at all? It seems to me that the notions traditionally given as representing the west - the appeal to rationality, egalitarianism, government based on representation, "progress", etc., have become so hopelessly muddled up with capitalism and all that it entails that I'm not sure if they can be separated without the whole edifice collapsing in on itself. And, it has to be said, certain ideals such as "progress" (in the technological sense) are of dubious value anyway.

When I was younger I used to think so highly of the Giants of the West - Plato, Descartes, Voltaire, Locke, and so on. But over the years as I have read more of the history of the west, in particular the history of the U.S. (which is a dark history that pretends to stand awash in angelic light), I started to wonder what it was that I used to be so eager to defend. Private property at the expense of public good? The pursuit of wealth vs. the pursuit of harmony with nature? I'm still not sure....

"The lesson here, I suppose, is that if an FBI director doesn’t want to be fired, it’s best to keep your kompromat a little closer to your chest, as a gun to hold to your boss’s head. Comey’s crew already released the piss tapes kompromat on Trump—the damage was done. What was left to hold back Trump from firing Comey? “Laws”? The FBI isn’t even legal. “Norms” would be the real reason. Which pretty much sums up everything Trump has been doing so far. We’ve learned the past two decades that we’re hardly a nation of laws, at least not when it comes to the plutocratic ruling class. What does bind them are “norms”—and while those norms may mean everything to the ruling class, it’s an open question how much these norms mean to a lot of Americans outside that club."

http://exiledonline.com/?s=Mark%20Ames

It strikes me that so far, Trump is lagging well behind both Obama and Bush in Nuremberg tribunal worthy war crimes (with plenty of time left to catch up, of course), but well ahead of his two immediate predecessors in mind-boggling stupidity. Yes, we did it, we finally have an American president who is "as good as the people."

It's all been said before : The riches of darkness are those which men have made, during their ignorance of God Allmighty’s treasures: That lead us from the love of all, to labour and contention, dis- contentment and vanity. The works of darkness are Repining, Envy, Malice, Covetousness, Fraud, Oppression, Discontent and Violence. All which proceed from the corruption of Men and their mistake in the choice of riches: for having refused those which God made, and taken to themselves treasures of their own, they invented scarce and rare, insufficient, hard to be gotten, little, movable and useless treasures. Yet as violently pursued them as if they were the most necessary and excellent things in the whole world. And though they are all mad, yet having made a combination they seem wise; and it is a hard matter to persuade them either to Truth or Reason. There seemeth to be no way, but theirs: whereas God knoweth they are as far out of the way of Happiness, as the East is from the West. For, by this means, they have let in broils and dissatisfactions into the world, and are ready to eat and devour one another: particular and feeble interests, false proprieties, insatiable longings, fraud, emulation, murmuring and dissension being everywhere seen; theft and pride and danger, and cousenage, envy and contention drowning the peace and beauty of nature, as waters cover the sea. Oh how they are ready to sink always under the burden and cumber of devised wants! Verily, the prospect of their ugly errors, is able to turn one’s stomach: they are so hideous and deformed. - Thomas Traherne, 1636-1674

Here's the latest assessment of why people think Trump is a mess - he suffers from the Dunning-Kruger effect. Yet, it seems a large portion of Americans present the same level of blustering stupidity, no matter which part of the US you are in.

"In another recent paper, he examined the connection between reflectivity and the Dunning-Kruger effect. Named after psychologists David Dunning and Justin Kruger, the effect describes the way people who are the least competent at a task often rate their skills as exceptionally high because they are too ignorant to know what it would mean to have the skill."

I think Bush Jr. was "as gd as the people" as well. Meanwhile, given all of our discussion recently of public meat-beating, it seems to me that with regard to Comey, Russia, and everything the country is focusing on, that the whole nation is meat-beating--Washington and the media especially.

Wudu-

Gd question! Check out the Twilight bk, then get back to us. We need to reflect and discuss.

Jas-

I think there is such a thing as an electric nose hair clipper. You might also enjoy this:

Other may disagree, but in my opinion, what is known as "Western culture" which is the culture that developed in Western Europe since 1450, has nothing worth saving. It is a complete mistake, a wrong turn.

Of course, many fine works of art and thought were created after 1450, but the good ones were at least partly inspired by the spirit of former times (like the Romantics).

Pre-1450 European culture was quite similar to that of Asia and the rest of the world. Look up the Perennial Tradition, to get an idea.

Anything worth saving in the West will have its roots in pre-1450 culture, in my opinion.

On technology (I have never owned a smart phone, but I do have a cell fone): Technology presumes there's just one right way to do things and there never is (Persig, Zen ... Motorcycle maintenance.

For the male-female thing, see the chapter in Lasch, Narcissism in America. I hate to see the slant here that it's strictly a female problem; the guy in the posted video finally realizes that "How's it going?" said to an apparently busy female wasn't working, so he tries another approach that also didn't work (for him). Definition of insanity is to keep trying the same thing expecting a different outcome, so sorry, he can't complain. "How's it going?" is what I say to coworkers that I KNOW, and conversation usually ensues. Works great in that context, but I would definitely ignore a stranger saying that to me. It presumes a familiarity that doesn't exist.

My perspective? 50% of the population on this planet is bigger and stronger than me. Safety first. Guys who presume familiarity in my experience will presume much more (and much worse).

Hmmm, often I encounter nihilism of sorts in people who are upset at the world or feel somehow slighted. Often I here people who rail against "the system" or as above tossing western culture and how its bad and useless. Compared to what I ask? Not big on post 1450 western culture? Do forgo drains, medicine, automobiles, refrigeration, air conditioning, etc. Knock yourself out baby I say. A friend was a big organic guy and all natural against western medicine and though born into a rich family and enjoying its benefits--against capitalism. He developed a hear condition and I encouraged him (sarc) to cure it with tea and having his family do ritual dances and sacrifices to the cardiac gods. In two weeks he was at Johns Hopkins having bypass surgery and in recovery was greatly enjoying a few of Phillip Roth's novels. He came around..Western culture is just fine....considering the alternatives....its pretty damn good warts and all.

I agree to an extent, Aaron, though I wouldn’t put any dates to it. Western culture is certainly moribund at this point. There are two competing trends in popular expressions which reflect this: the ascendancy of a violent and depraved hip-hop culture representing the (justified) anger of historically oppressed groups and the rigid and increasingly regressive Anglo response. Both have become increasingly histrionic and self-referential, which wouldn’t be so bad if there were any substance behind the noise. The West as embodied by the thinkers and artists Dr. Berman listed is long gone. I’ve personally turned my sights to the East and the South, where (hopefully) there exist pockets of life where sanity hasn’t been snuffed out yet.

I recently saw a film which in a way combines the best of these two worlds as they once were: Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams, made back in 1990. It’s a series of vignettes based on recurring dreams the director had, including an homage to my namesake and a charming celebration of village life. Highly recommended for Wafers.

That article Birney posted above about how Trump is what we deserve describes America about as well as any I've read. One of the many amazing things about Trump is that he surrounds himself with all the luxuries our society has to offer--yet he seems to take absolutely no satisfaction from any of it. You don't have to read his tweets very closely to realize that in addition to being incredibly shallow, vain and narcissistic, this is a deeply insecure and unhappy individual. Just how much does one person need in terms of wealth accumulation and status before they can finally relax and be comfortable in their own skin? Yes, he is indeed America in a nutshell.

On the other hand, just today douchebag Congressman Al Green went on the floor of the House to demand Trump's impeachment for firing Comey. That's right, a member of the congressional black caucus is now defending the organization that tried to destroy Martin Luther King and subvert the entire civil rights movement. Tell me again, idiot progs, why this country even DESERVES to be saved.

Given the socially destructive effect of cell phones (see Sherry Turkle, also article cited by Kanye, above), my advice to Americans is: go for it! From a declinist-Waferian pt of view, social destruction is exactly what we need. But I feel bad, watching the usage of these fones in Mexico and other societies that retain some degree of traditional culture. The fones are wrecking what's left of those traditions. In 1950, Octavio Paz said that Latin America wd have to copy American notions of 'progress' b4 it realized how destructive such notions were. A real pity.

As for your own response to some guy who says, "How's yr day going?": be aware that women in many societies wd not respond with silence; this wd be considered rude. It may be normal in the US, but normal does not nec. mean healthy. You live in a warped culture, so warped behavior seems reasonable. I've been in Mexico 11 yrs now, and because of my own US conditioning, I'm still slightly surprised by the difference. When a man and a woman meet here, even for the 1st time (being introduced, let's say), they embrace and kiss on the cheek. We (Mexicans) do this all the time, but typically the woman will hold the embrace longer than I will, inasmuch as I am still a somewhat uptight American. The embrace is merely healthy; it's hardly an invitation to have sex.

Another common scenario: I'm walking along and cross paths with a beautiful woman in her 20s. She makes eye contact and smiles. This does *not* mean, "Let's fuck!" It just means, "Hi! Yr a human being, like me!" Not that this happens every time, but it happens a lot. It abs. never happens in the US because American society is very sick. Women are afraid of men, so the norm is to blow them off. I can't tell you how happy I am not to be living in a mentally ill environment any more.

My suggestion 2u: Travel! Broaden yr horizons! Stay way for at least a yr. When you return, you'll see the US for what it is: a stupid, degraded culture filled with stupid, degraded people. And you'll say: "Uck. How in the world cd I have lived in this rude, callous, vulgar shit pile for so long?"

A living epitome of bullshit calling the other bullshitter!http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/obama-called-trump-bullshtter

When finished, the wrath of karma will make a believer of the most fervent prog. You simply can't write off divine debt without paying the full price. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYqrXVNfYUI

Like the botox-lady the hopey-changey bullshitter can't seem to leave Mr.Trump to do his preordained task. Not realizing that challenging or obstructing Karma will only ratchet up the pain and prolong the suffering.https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/may/15/hillary-clinton-onward-together-launch

At the intersection of jurisprudence, male-female relations, Hollywood, Internet dating, and technodouchbaggery, this story from Austin, Texas. A man lodges a suit in civil court to recover $17.31: the woman he had taken to the movies spent a fair amount of time texting a friend during the feature despite his repeated requests that she desist. She left him at the theater, obliging him to make his own way home.

@COS - It is interesting that you equate rejecting modernity with nihilism. Whereas I consider nihilism to be the inevitable result of embracing modernity.

You defend modernity by providing a list of comforts that it has provided. That's interesting, because I often describe modern science as a quest for "convenience".

As for modern medicine, most of our illnesses are caused by modern conditions to begin with.

You're right, though, modernity is seductive, very seductive.

MB - many of those writers were critics of modernity. They are modernity's reaction against itself, it seems to me. I also think that many of them are really pre-modern in sensibility. Bach's music was religious, and Shakespeare would surely have laughed at our notion of "progress". Keats was a Romantic, and so on.

But I'd agree with you that there are many fine modern artists and thinkers whom we can learn from. But I don't necessarily think that detracts from my wider point.

@Vincent - Turning to the East or South is fine, and I do it myself, but I think it can be overdone. Lots of countries are, believe it or not, worse than America, like Thailand, or China. Greed, envy, materialism, xenophobia are rife in the East. Anywhere capitalism and modernity have made inroads. I travel a lot, the rot lies just beneath the surface in many countries. But I suppose, what choice do we have?

I'm getting nervous. 1/2 of Americans (I always told my students that "I can" is contained within the word American. I was such a great inspiration) want Herr Trumpf impeached. Of course how many of the half know that impeachment only means a trial, not removal? Negative infinity? Nevertheless, I urge all Wafers to contact your representatives and demand they support Trump even if found deflowering sheep by the light of the silvery moon. He's about to destroy public education, health care (which provides a 6 trillion dollar tax break to the 1%) and institute tax reform which basically does the same. Maybe perhaps the complete and total immiseration of all but the 1% may induce the 99% to look up from their cell phones on occasion. By the way, so what if Trump met with the Russians. Hey, didn't Kennedy meet with Khrushchev in Vienna, Reagan with Gorbachev, etc. But so many in Washington want to renew the cold war with its attendant military budgets and it appears Dems are more aggressive on this than Repubs. With regard to phones and women, maybe it's me but if I'm a woman with a biological clock and has some desire to have a husband and children the last thing I'd do is walk around with wires hanging from my head. Are these women so sure the the man who just passed them by was not the man who could have changed their lives? I met both my wives in the most unusual circumstances and though each ended in divorce I'm glad we met and tried to build a life together. Now these brain dead women only know how to give the outside world the middle finger as they engage in all sorts of meaningless tech activity resulting eventually of a life alone or with their thousands of virtual Facebook friends.

I've been enjoying the conversation on whether there is anything worth saving from Western culture. From my viewpoint, it seems like one of the biggest achievements of Western culture is the establishment of human rights. Things like freedom of speech, freedom of religion...basically the idea that one is free to be whoever they want to be as a person. However, I also view this emphasis on individual rights as the reason why many Western societies (particularly the USA) are so cold and individualistic. I don't think it's a coincidence that the USA is perhaps the most advanced country in terms of women's rights and gay rights while also being the most individualistic society. This presents a conundrum: I imagine most WAFers are pro woman's rights and pro gay rights, but what if this emphasis on individual rights creates the very conditions for such a society as the USA? In more traditional societies, where one must, in a sense, control and contain their own personal identity in order to fit into a larger group or community, there is more of a sense of togetherness and wellbeing, but what if one must also change who they are in order to fit into that society? Is this worth it? Would be happy to hear what others think as this is something I've been thinking about a lot recently.

I live 1.2 miles from work, so barring crappy weather, I usually walk to work. The interactions I have with people walking back, at the end of the day, are interesting and depressing. If its an older person, they will say hi to me and smile, sometimes even before I greet them. If its someone in their 30’s or 40’s, its about 50/50 that they say hi back or nothing at all. If it’s a teenager or 20 something, forget it, they just look at me weird for saying anything to them. And if they are female, they usually fold their arms close and start walking twice as fast. It’s like they think I am a potential rapist or something.

An impeachment of Trump is probably the best thing that could happen for the world. Trump is much too smart for the job, seems genuinely interested in improving the country's infrastructure, de-escalating tensions with other nations & avoiding major wars. His removal by the "Deep State" would be the final blow to American democracy & greatly accelerate USA's domestic collapse. It would be very difficult for Putin to turn Russia into an American colony with Pence in the Oval, and Russia would hopefully turn entirely to China & abandoned its futile quest for American "partnership."

"A confession: on the advice of reader Leslie Fain, I bought a secondhand copy of Berman’s book The Twilight of American Culture as preparation for writing The Benedict Option, but never got around to reading it. What a mistake that was! I was just googling around and discovered that in that book, Berman — a left-wing atheist — counsels people to take “The Monastic Option” as a way of preserving truth through the collapse now upon us. I think my copy of the Berman book is in storage, but I clearly have to go dig it up and read it."

I can't shake the spiritual potential energy building up to this wkend... Trumpi will visit The Vatican, Israel, and Saudi Arabia...

Jewish Mystics Hope Trump’s Israel Visit Might ‘Raise The Temple’http://forward.com/news/372256/for-jewish-mystics-trumps-israel-visit-part-of-messianic-process/Oh Holy Holy Trumpi,,,Kind of a good candidate though. The previous Temple was built by king Herod, if I remember correctly...

Women acting that way is merely another symptom of how Americans have grown insanely fearful and distrustful of others. When I was kid growing up in the 1970s, for example, we didn't usually lock our doors and us kids would stay out all and play all day largely unsupervised. Nowadays, people cower in homes rigged with expensive security systems and never let the poor kids out of their sight except when they go to school. Knuckleheads feel they need to go around strapped in public when they are more likely to blow off their own nutsack with an accidental discharge than thwart a mugging or carjacking. It's just like what I posted yesterday about Trump being a miserable human being despite having more wealth and status than anyone could ever have; Americans possess a globe spanning military and allow heavily armed stormtroopers to patrol the streets, yet live in abject terror that at any moment a terrorist or criminal is going to jump out of the hedges in their front lawn. It's pathetic.

Meanwhile, in yet another of our ongoing series of weird public masturbators, a guy in Arkansas decided to rub one out in the middle of a shoe store. If you're going to do that, you should at least have the decency to put on a clean shirt:

@COS - The question I posed in my statement (And maybe I didn't phrase it very well) was whether or not its possible to separate the noble values of the west - democracy, scientific understanding,etc., from the destructive values of modern capitalism - the hollowing out of civic institutions, mindless consumerism, the profit motive reigning over everything else. You touch on the valuable things modernity has given us, but to lump everything together as a "take-it-or-leave-it" kinda deal is a pretty one-dimensional analysis. There is a big difference between how modern medicine or indoor plumbing affects a society, and how commercial television or automobiles affect a society.

Plenty of insightful thinkers in the U.S. have engaged with the type of problem I'm describing, like Lewis Mumford, Neil Postman, and Jacques Ellul. None of these men could be described as rejecting the western intellectual tradition, they actually wanted to save it.....even if they had to save it from itself.

@Dr. Berman - I have read the twilight book, its been a little while though. What I remember from it though was a description of a culture that has, over time, almost completely destroyed its ability to engage with intellectual and civic life. Whatever your political alignment,personal background, or age, there is a certain foundational level of knowledge required about things like history, government,& science that a person must have in order to see what's really happening around them. Most Americans now seem to have a greater understanding of what is on TV than how their own government works.

Going back to Postman for a moment, I remember in the preface to his most well-known book, amusing ourselves to death, he compared two works of dystopian fiction - 1984, and Brave New World. He said that he felt America's future was not turning into the fascist government in 1984, but the meaningless, idiotic hedonism of Brave New World. I think he was right.

Check out Horkheimer and Adorno, "Dialectic of Englightenment," which discusses this process. I think I also talk abt the gd vs. bad Enlightenment in the Twilight bk. The problem is that they come as a package deal--which is true of every civilization; 'lumping' is eventually unavoidable. You might also wanna dig up my "Dual Process" lecture (archived on this blog), see the quote at the end from Shadia Drury. Here's a thought: same nation that gave us Beethoven, gave us Hitler. Accident? In future, watch length. Thank you.

central-

w/o meat-beating, there wd be no pastrami. Therefore, I'm a big proponent of meat-beating. Also of Eiseley.

Chris-

Check out Tina Fey's movie, "Mean Girls." Spot-on.

Michael-

Thanks for the tip. I just sent Rod a little note. Nice also to see how a couple of people were significantly impacted by the Twilight bk. We conquer the world, one Wafer at a time...

Jesus, how did we get onto this topic? I'm much more a fan of intercourse, myself. But see my new bk, "Paleolithic Meat-Beating: The Myth and the Reality." Already up there on the NYT best-seller list.

Some time ago I did a scientific study to establish a Dolt Index (DI) for the entire planet. This DI measured the Morons Per Hectare (MPH) of any given region. Denmark, for example, had 0.6 MPH, whereas the US, averaged over the entire country, came to 144.8 (highest region was Berkeley, Cal, 776.2; probably because of the Prog Density (PD)). But wdn't ya know it? I forgot Alaska and Hawaii. Let me run a scan of those two states, and I'll get back 2u.

I read chapter 3 of WAF, and I plan to read the rest soon. Turned off my phone today and I felt great! I'm on board with the anti-fone movement!

To clear up my earlier comments, I understood the use of technology to be a sublimation of the individual into the scientific orthodoxy of control. When reading chapter 3 I found a middle ground where you described technology as "tools invented for specific purposes to meet human needs," (or some approximation of that). Looking forward, I'd say I want to invent technology with the values I'd like to see in my society.

This is because, as you wrote on pg 75, "Borgmann [says] 'politics will remain without substance,' for the crucial dimensions of our life will have been determined by technology." This understanding of technology "defining the dimensions" of life hit the nail on the head for me. To come full circle back to my earlier example, bitcoin is a technology which redefines the dimensions of financial life. No longer can a bank freeze your money for any reason, nor can it be removed from your possession by a nation as you cross into another country, or devalued by a local government. Electronic transactions now take place outside of the central controls of banks and nations. Money is now decentralized.

Michael - On a podcast I like, Rod is made fun of because of his personal hangups. Looking at the notes I took on Twilight, his article indicates some understanding of the first chapter. I plan to read his book and compare.

Every technology, esp. of the postmodern era (from TV onward), gets swamped by the wrong usage, and is turned into crap for the masses. Smartfones and pc's were going to decentralize everything, give us all individual control over our lives. Ha! When pigs fly. Chances that bitcoin will escape this fate are virtually 0. Just wait and see. Meanwhile:

The pt of WAF 3 is that technology is America's hidden religion. This is why every new fad, or app, or gadget, sweeps thru the culture like the next salvation. There is never a critical look at any of this horse manure.

I caught myself feeling optimistic the other day,...http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/05/15/hope-is-our-enemy-fighting-boiling-frog-syndrome/http://www.documentarymania.com/player.php?title=Requiem%20for%20the%20American%20Dream

Making Humans Great Again.http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/climate-change-game-over-global-warming-climate-sensitivity-seven-degrees-a7407881.htmlhttps://www.pri.org/stories/2016-12-13/climate-change-meet-your-apocalyptic-twin-oceans-poisoned-plastic

There an objective reality that transcends all human debates. The earth doesn't care if we argue it being flat not cube. The consequences of 410 ppm and rising of cO2 doesn't give a damn of us bickering over whodonit, manmade or jezzusmade. Moreover tomorrow if magically 100% of amerikns accept that all these troubles are human caused -big f'kn deal. They gonna beat their meat and go to sleep nonetheless. Therefore the first premise of being a Wafer is, "it's piss and that's what it gonna be." It has been long time nothing but piss, except telling them is not enough -they need to take a swig to realize that. Maybe even then not -the quintessential definition of a prog.https://guymcpherson.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Poster-demotivation-half-glass-piss.jpg

'Every technology, esp. of the postmodern era (from TV onward), gets swamped by the wrong usage, and is turned into crap for the masses.'

It's worth noting though that Moore's Law (that transistor density on microprocessors doubles every two years) has held true these last 50 years or so. Basically the graph is a straight line through the origin that remains unaffected by paradigm shifts or cultural changes. I suspect that this kind of unstoppable progress would be similar to any other kind of weapons technology, like firearms and so on. This does not necessarily contradict WAF 3 (not read yet, working on it), but be aware that the underlying speed of development of these weapons is constant even if the marketing hustle changes.

The most admirable western value is individual human rights and its accompanying democracy. Can individual human rights exist within a theocracy, or an autocracy? I have no romantic longings to losing my voting rights, my rights to choose when and with whom I want to reproduce, my right to work and get an education, my right to a fair divorce, etc. That men have denied women these rights for hundreds of years without asking themselves what makes them more worthy of keeping them only to themselves is a mystery to me. Also, in that same context - it has been less than 100 years when women have obtained those rights. Why would women fear men at all- you might ask? Why would a gazelle fear a leopard? Men in government are right now fighting to take away those rights - the question should be then: why we should not fear men?

If in anyone's mind there lives this persistent thought: "women are by nature my inferiors" - that in itself is enough reason to fear men- because that belief is as old as time and because humans tend to act on their beliefs. The harassment that women receive online just for expressing themselves freely is enough evidence that men are still worthy of being feared; these are men who have not adjusted well to the news of the last 100 years: women are autonomous beings, and we like freedom just as much as men do.

I am a short term Pessimist and a long term optimist about humanity. I would argue that the desire for individual human rights is what's keeping us from diving into totalitarianism and tribalism. (Only good for plutocrats and warlords)

I sometimes wonder what will happen to this society. As a psychologist, I get to see a reality that many/most are not aware of. Things like the massive, massive rates of addiction to psychiatric and pain medication, all courtesy of BigPharma. And then I see the level of delusional thinking, the fantasy in which most live in this country. Truly a zombie society.

In another line of thought, I was hopeful that Trump might be able to take on the Deep State and scale back the empire, but now I am not so sure. The overt sustained attacks (albeit laughably baseless) to which he is subjected tell me that he is a real threat to the Deep State, and validate my feelings about him all along. Watching the mass media's apoplectic reactions is comical and reminiscent of the state-controlled media I grew up with in Eastern Europe during communism.

In any event, like the Soviet Union, this empire too shall fall. What worries me most are the millions of spooks with no marketable job skills who will find themselves without a fat government paycheck, who are likely to turn to hard-core crime and wreck society further, very much like the KGB did after 1989. I have seen the effects of this spook takeover in Eastern Europe, and today, 27 years after the fall of communism, those nations are still controlled by very much the same spooks (and their children). So it will be generations before this country starts resembling a normal society.

Please excuse my absence from the greatest blog in the universe. I've been slammed w/work over the last few weeks. I hope to be back in the saddle in a few more weeks. Take care, MB and Wafers.

Miles D. Deli

ps: I plan to travel to DC to testify against the evil witch hunt that is now engulfing our Trumpi. I will make my voice be heard loud and clear: Trumpi is the right leader to have sitting in the oval office at this point in America's development. I will also attempt to get together with Ivanka and make a case for MB to be appointed head of the Ministry of Total Collapse (MTC). We hafta get this show on the road, pronto.

Some stories to warm a Wafer's heart. First up, an Asian-American female dean at Yale bragged about being made an Elite reviewer on Yelp (as if any sane person would give a shit). Of course, when students went and checked out her reviews, they found numerous references to local New Haven residents as fat white trash. Incredibly, Yale actually suspended her instead of giving her the Hillary Clinton Hero of Diversity award:

"Proud" to be an american moment...Twenty-four-year-old Jose Herrera was sentenced Wednesday to three years and eight months in state prison after pleading no contest to felony animal cruelty. Herrera was living with his ex-girlfriend, her mother and her 10-year-old brother, who has special needs.

He hurled the boy's assistance dog, a 1-year-old Chihuahua named Pearl, off of a balcony.

Authorities say Pearl suffered a serious eye injury and needed medical care that the family could not provide. She is currently in the care of Long Beach, CA animal welfare workers and is said to be recovering from her injuries.

I can understand both Christian’s and Juliet’s perspectives on American women. I get the same response that Christian mentioned from young women, and it really does make you feel terrible. When I was in Belgium, I had a pretty girl stop me on the street and ask to take my picture because she thought I looked nice. I couldn’t believe it. That would never happen in the US. Looking back, the only women who’ve never treated me like some sort of alien have all been European. So it’s definitely an American thing.

That said, since Trump was elected I now know what it feels like to have a target on your back. American men are by and large entitled jerks and won’t hesitate to use violence or intimidation against people they feel are beneath them. Women are justified in being wary around them. Trouble is, this ruins it for the decent guys. Juliet- Maybe it’s just the survival instinct kicking in, but I definitely agree with you. If you don’t stand up to bullies, what you end up with is a repeat of history. I have to deal with men trying to walk into me or stare me down every time I go out in public, but I stare right back or deliberately run into them to let them know that I won’t be pushed around. It’s somewhat dangerous and very draining, but I believe it’s necessary.

Well, the GOP wants to take away women's rights, but from that it hardly follows that women should be afraid of the avg guy in the street, as tho they were walking thru a forest of predators. This is an extreme paranoia that is hardly justified by what is going on the political level. Furthermore, Juliet was referring to male-female relations everywhere, and since the dawn of time--very unlikely. It also ignores what I said abt these relations in Mexico, for example, as well as many other countries; as you pt out, it's pretty much an American thing, and historically probably quite recent. Her generalizations are very much off-base.

I wonder how much of this American anti-male paranoia is due to feminism. Down till the late 60s, American women weren't intensely focused on rape, or taking classes in karate, or trashing men in general. Then somehow, ca. 1968, that became all the rage.

Not clear, tho, why men try to walk into you. I never have that experience myself, when I visit the US. Seems rather weird.

Things like the massive, massive rates of addiction to psychiatric and pain medication, all courtesy of BigPharma. And then I see the level of delusional thinking, the fantasy in which most live in this country. Truly a zombie society.

So true. It really takes a lot of rigorously conditioned social brainwashing to get so many people to so resolutely not notice this. And what really bodes ill for the future about it all can be found in that old hack saying, "In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king."

All you Russian speakers out there: am I hearing things? In this short clip w/Putin, I thought I heard him say 'indyuk', which means 'turkey'. It was not translated in the subtitles, but he might have said, "The US is a turkey country filled with turkey people." Pls, someone provide verification. Spacibo.

Meanwhile, I mentioned a while back that I've always been fascinated by the Cambridge Five spy ring--Philby, Blunt, Maclean, Cairncross, and Burgess. A few yrs back, I read Miranda Carter's bio of Blunt, and am now rdg it for the 2nd time. Terrific study. The poor shmuck didn't seem to even know why he was doing what he was doing. Other favorites of mine in this genre: the novel by John Banville, "The Untouchable," and the movie "Another Country" (tho there are some historical inaccuracies involved w/it).

Yeah, I loved it. All those lemmings, going over a cliff, while at the same time thinking they're so hip.

Wafers: I sent this video to members of the Wafer Support Group, charged with getting me out of Guantanamo this Sept., when the FBI detains me at DFW. If yr not in the WSG, and you want to see this video, just send me yr email address, and I'll attach it to my reply.

Lemmings travel to Panama to find the perfect cliff.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zui1kCkxySM

Hustling is in the dna of amrika and women are no exempt. If you feel powerless they'll sell it to you. These "empowering" businesses are now very common in all yuppytown usa. There are even empowering songs. Just search "empowering songs for women" in youtube. We sure live in a bizarre country where the newly empowered "stare right back or deliberately run into them" to let them know the power. The choices have boiled down between the two extremes -a cold ignore or a f'k-yu2. So much so from 'the home of the brave'. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_gdXF619E0http://embodypower.com/what-we-do/

MB- The hostility I’m getting from men is because I have partial Italian ancestry and apparently have a “foreign” appearance. This is not a good time to look foreign in the US, hence the death glares and shoulder checks. I remember the day after Trump got elected I went to the grocery store I’d always been going to without problem and there was this muscular guy in his 40s in the line next to me. I politely said “excuse me” so I could get my handcart past him, and he completely ignored me, grit his teeth, and clenched his fist around a cane he was holding. Other people in line saw it but just looked at me with pity rather than say anything. That was the first time I’d ever feared for my safety in this country. These incidents and worse now occur daily, and I’ve observed that they don’t apply to everyone. I can only imagine how people who look fully ethnic are being treated. As for the paranoia, you could very well be right. I definitely see it but don’t fully understand the cause.

Esca- I’m not one for power games, I assure you. Neither am I empowered—just the opposite in fact. I’m a very meek, bookish, non-confrontational type of person, but when you have people you don’t know staring at you as though they want you wiped off the face of the planet, it’s almost impossible not to react. I do not like mimicking their behavior, but when you passively accept abuse, you become dehumanized and open yourself up to even greater abuse. I am working feverishly at this point to get out of the country, as I don’t foresee things improving any time soon.

I agree that technology gets swamped for the wrong usage. My personal opinion is US education buys the snake oil because the politicians want education to be fast, easy, and CHEAP. And the salesmen see a lucrative market.

From the Flickering Mind by Todd Oppenheimer c 2003:

Thomas Edison, 1922, “I believe the motion picture is destined to revolutionize our educational system...In ten years textbooks will be as obsolete as the horse and carriage.”

Director of Cleveland Public Schools, 1945, “The time may come when a portable radio receiver will be as common in the classroom as the blackboard.”

B. F. Skinner, 1960's, “With the help of teaching machines and programmed instruction, children can learn twice as much.”

President Lyndon Johnson, 1968, “The one requirement for a good and universal education is an inexpensive and readily available means of teaching children. Samoa has met this problem through educational television.”

From a Cassandra we ignored - a cautionary memo that an editorial staff writer for Forbes magazine wrote to his colleagues in 1984, “In the end, it is the poor who will be chained to the computer; the rich will get teachers.”

Personally, I minimize my interactions with American women. Since they apparently need a man "like a fish needs a bicycle," I just go with the flow. Besides, I don't want to waste my finite time, money and energy on crazy.

Now that the warm weather is coming around again, I'm witnessing more of what has to be the most schizophrenic behavior of a lot of American women: dressing provocatively but utilizing body language that lets strangers know they will cut their heads off if they try to talk to them. Let me be clear, I'm not slut shamer, and these women absolutely have the right to wear whatever they want. But what in the heck is the point of just generally wearing outfits in public that will draw stares if you don't want to be stared at or approached? I don't get it.

The blogger Fabius Maximus has done an interesting series of posts on modern male/female relationships and the societal effects of modern feminism. One point in particular caught my eye, as it reminded me of what a friend of mine lamented to me years ago about how difficult it was to find a woman who was physically attractive to him who hadn't been completely mind fucked from dating assholes:

"Partially liberated from the need for male providers, women increasingly select for dark triad traits (i.e., entertaining jerks, often treating them badly). Some of Taylor Swift’s songs clearly describe how this works. Success in the sex games for betas (most of us are betas) largely comes from learning the game (faking dark triad behaviors). Why should men marry these women (when they’re over 28 and ready to “settle”)?"

I sympathize. I left the U.S. 18 years ago, for much the same reasons. In my case, it wasn't "ethnicity." Rather, I have always been a somewhat "Aspie-ish" personality, and I found that daily interactions with ordinary Americans were getting me into more and more "hot water" on an almost daily basis. Believe it or not, I spent the last 5 years of my life in the U.S. living on a remote mountain home, in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, where my nearest neighbor was 5 miles away, and the nearest town was 20 miles away. The daily commutes to and from work were epic, but that was the only place I actually felt safe.

I have never regretted my move overseas, and I am sure you will not regret this either. Good luck!

American women are clearly in a state of fear. Which is what I think is guiding their reactive behavior lately. There is a perpetuation of it in the universities along with a kind of teaching of neurotic behavior. It's in the news as well. It's culminated into this reactionary battlefield that consists of imaginary enemies, in my opinion. It's as though they want to see a misogynist behind every corner, We're living in an atmosphere where everything is so over scrutinized as to what someone says or doesn't say. A kind of neurotic deconstruction if you will. I'm not saying that misogyny doesn't exist, it does. But it's so overblown into a paranoia. We women have more than we have ever had in our nation's history or world history. Although I'm not so sure that is something to brag about considering how corrupt and sickening this system is. I don't even usually engage in conversations with these feminists because to them I'm a misogynist woman. Where does someone go after that in the conversation. It's ended. I feel that I'm a leftist, but the left today really has gone off the rails into this victimhood complexity. They are acting worse than spoiled entitled children. No wonder Hillary was the Democratic party candidate, she uses victimhood as a kind of badge and strength. And I'm betting she's going to run again using the same tactics.

I think the awfulness of relations between men and women in the United States is just part of the decline of American social relations in general. Studies have shown that Americans have fewer close friends than they used to despite the hundreds of “friends” we collect on social media. If regular friendships are declining then I would think romantic relationships would also suffer. When you add the increasing narcissism and selfishness of the population and the fact that our social lives are now heavily mediated by technology you have a pretty toxic environment for anyone trying to develop meaningful relationships of any kind.

A 13 year old girl lost her mom last week and now she's an orphan (father died 10 years ago). A friend of mine, who's her cousin came up from Florida to attend the funeral. Mind you that she's not even a blood cousin. Anyway, not one of the girl's relatives helped with anything. My friend had to pay for the funeral, constantly took everyone out to dinner and was even expected to take the girl back to Florida to live with her! The selfishness was near breathtaking. My friend is 64 and works at home doing IT, not a highly lucrative job. In one week here in Philadelphia she laid out over $12,000 with little chance of reimbursement. Now since no-one in this girl's family intends to help and given that her only option then is foster care, my friend may actually be forced to raise a 13 year old. I'm sorry, doctor, but why do I think this situation is fairly indicative among upper-middle class Jews in this country? Knowing Catholics quite well I can't imagine them acting this way, for instance.

What an awful story. I wonder what wd have happened if yr friend had asked the girl's relatives to help out. In any case, I can't imagine that this type of thing is particularly characteristic of Jews. Did you ever see the movie, "Jesus of Montreal"? Jesus is hurt, and friends take him to various hospitals, and the only one that will accept him without payment is a Jewish one. Of course, this is just a movie, or perhaps the wry humor of Denys Arcand.

I *knew* you guys were the Karamazov brothers! This is great. I really thought Vlad said indyuk, his opinion of America and Americans, and their president. But maybe I imagined it. But he's no dummy, Vlad; and like most world leaders at the present time, he knows the American experiment is over. (Americans are too dumb to know this, even the smart ones.) Lemmings to the sea; turkeys to Thanksgiving. And if a declinist shd speak up, say, "You know where all this is leading, rt?", they definitely don't wanna hear from him. Much better to play charades, like What happened with Comey?, and Let's impeach Trump!, and Where's my pussy hat? I swear, Americans are the dumbest people to ever inhabit this planet in the history of the world. 'Shit-for-brains' doesn't even begin to describe it.

Here today, with the Saudis chanting "He went to Jared!" as they show off their discount bazookas from Lockheed, Trump in the land of ignorant barbarians (Saudis, probably the worst people on the planet), allies with savages and tells the world to isolate Iran, which is a land with a deep cultural heritage, a highly literate and educated young population, unfortunately led by corrupt Imams, but still would have more in common with the west than the camel traders in Saudi. The most hilarious part is Trump calling Iran a destabilizing force!

Is there anything America is good for other than building and selling weapons to nutjobs to sow chaos and kill innocent children? Whether abroad or domestically America's specialty is violence.

Now Iran will go into the arms of Russia and China , good for them, the future is the East. I only hope Europe can figure that out too.

I tried to read the article, but there's a paywall. That shd tell us something. As far as Green Capitalism goes: it's a shuck. Thos Friedman and Al Gore are into it bigtime, because it has made them a lot of money. Responsible critics have called it 'greenwashing'. At bottom, it's just green or holistic language tacked on to the same old program of economic and tech expansion--'growth'--when it is growth that is the problem of our entire way of life (endless hustling, really). So GC is just dancing around the old paradigm, trying yet again to make it work. It changes 0, and just makes the rich richer.

There are a # of bks on the subject that I've run across during the last few yrs; Joel Magnuson discusses it to some extent in "The Approaching Great Transformation."

"Of late, Wright’s own political activities have become focused. Her particular interest is the Congo, in the depredations of electronics companies avid for minerals to power – she gestures to my phone, recording our conversation on the table between us – the devices on which we have become so reliant." (Interview in the Guardian, altho the subject has also been reported on in the Daily Telegraph)

If its any consolation, as a white male I experience acts of anti-social aggression regularly in my affluent Bay area suburb, from both whites and non-whites. It's inescapable these days. Its also prevalent in many other countries. You may have a better time in places where others look like you, of course.

For what its worth, every religion says that returning aggression for aggression will make you feel worse, and in my experience its true.

I understand you feel that just sucking it up will make you feel worse, but in the long run, it will heal you. You can pity the perpetrators as trapped in a personal hell of ego, rage, and resentment. Seen that way, they only hurt themselves, and deserve pity. Attacks on your "dignity" (false ego), by definition, cannot hurt you, as we must all evolve beyond ego. If you respond, you only deepen your ego, and join them in pain and rage.

This is the religious perspective (Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, etc), and many people have found it truer than they could have imagined.

Of course, today, nothing is more out of fashion than transcending one's ego, and this ancient wisdom is all but lost to us.

To me it's a toss-up between the Israeli death-cult, the N Korean regime, and the Saudi Regime. All love to kill, kill, kill! I remember Iran was being accused of having a nuclear ambition. I wouldn't mind if they got the bomb. After seeing Qaddafi & Libya reduced to chaos & slavery, I think we'd be better off if there was a stabilizing force in the ME-NA region.

Note on the East: North Korea is having a tough time with their nuclear goals, and there was speculation in Congress about "Regime Change." If they don't figure it out soon, the U.S. might storm in to get their hands on those rare-earth metals that China and Russia have been kind enough to pay for. I honestly can't tell what the future of Korea will be. The N&S need each other economically, but the regime is all talk on reunification, without any programs to alleviate hunger/poverty. South Korea on the other hand has all the problems of most developed nations, alienation/mental illness, environmental destruction & pollution. In February of this year, the only member of the Kim family who advocated reform was assassinated. But Un's other brother who wrote an anti-nuke, pro-peace poem is still alive.

Something like the following occurs 3 or 4x/mo., and it always wakes me up: I'm living among human beings now, not among self-absorbed douche bags.

Needed to shop for groceries. There's a mall in a town abt an hr away, w/a great food court as well. So there I am, walking toward a table with my orange chicken and rice, set my tray down, put my jacket around a chair. Guy at next table gets up: "That chair is wet. Take this one." He takes a chair from his table, puts it up against mine. "Here, sit on this." "Gracias," I say; "muy amable." He doesn't reply; just doin' his job, apparently. This is what people who live in community naturally do.

I can't imagine a similar scenario in the US. I lived there for decades; nothing like that ever happened to me there. The difference between a culture in which everyone is out for themselves, and one in which you take care of the other guy as a matter of course, is staggering. Many yrs ago Robt Bellah wrote: “Our material success is our punishment, in terms of what that success has done to the natural environment, our social fabric, and our personal lives.”

Attention please; according to The All-Mighty (Bill Gates) kids shouldn't have their own "smart-phone" (sic) until they're 14. I guess that means kids are unable to develop independent thinking skills until they're 15?

Jacob - Israel and Iran have some hope for a better future, however bleak, based on some positive qualities of the culture and people. Saudi Arabia does not. TE Lawrence said enthroning the House of Saud would set the society back a thousand years, and he was quite clearly making a conservative estimate.

And I doubt tensions with North Korea have anything to do with rare earths. A broken clock is right twice a day, after all. Say what you want about the Korean War, but unlike the zillions of other times when the Commies were allegedly threatening freedom, Democracy and mankind, it was pretty much started by naked aggression on the part of a Communist state. Again, American response and actions are subject to much question, but the premise was at least correct. So it is now. Sometimes, a crazy totalitarian dictator who wants nukes is just a cigar.

By the time anything is done about it, it will be China's problem and probably China's alone. America will likely not be a second-class power by 2020 as Professor Berman once hoped and the Pentagon still fears, but it will happen soon enough. Too bad the Chinese-dominated world won't be any more pleasant than the American Century.

Well, some historians wd disagree w/u on the origins of the Korean War. As for 2020: I never said that. Pentagon estimated that China wd be in charge of the Pacific Rim by 2030; there are also these "Global Trends" reports that talk abt our waning power in the world, but it's hardly 3 yrs away. But 2b sure, it's coming; I'm guessing we'll be a 2nd or even 3rd-class power by 2040. As for China: check out the Preface I did to the Mandarin edn of WAF, archived on this blog. (I never did find out what the Chinese thought of it.)

Bill, from an early age women get contradictory messages: you can be anything you want, you should be taken seriously, and in the meantime dress like a whore. This confuses men and women alike.

Dan, my family background is Italian/Catholic. My grandfather remarried when I was 12. Josephine had four children and at some point two of her granddaughters were placed in an orphanage…no one in the family took them in. The older sister was adopted when she was about 14, and finally Grandpa and Josephine gave the younger sister a home (I was in my late teens by then, and they were in their mid 70s). My mother resented that she had to include Venice on holidays. Lousy families occur across the full spectrum of cultures in the U.S.A.

Morris, in reference to Vlad’s comment, after a while you have to wonder if the "dumbness" of the U.S. Empire is a strategy rather than stupidity. Or maybe it’s just that our government is an out-picturing of the inner muck of our citizens. I dunno.

Yeah, Vlad wondered abt that as well. But then as Carlin said, our leaders don't come from Mars. There's an issue of intention here, I suppose: for example, buffoons like Kim Kardashian and the whole celebrity culture fits in very well with American capitalism. Which doesn't mean that the ruling class planned it that way; it just serves their purposes. So does the media feeding frenzy over Trump-Russia-Comey. American reporters/editors are pretty stupid (regardless of IQ), and tend to regard these things as 'real' issues. They are excited abt them.

As was said during Watergate-follow the money. Dems are reaching record levels of fundraising over Herr Trumpf so they are not interested in impeachment only the drip drip drip of daily scandal. Doctor, I've been reading much recently about the rise of Hitler and Jewish persecution. Jews only represented .5% of the German population yet were singled out. One reason given was that Jews were over-representation in the arts, finance, and politics. Do you see any parallels to the situation in the US today? I do. There's great line in Woody Allen's Deconstructing Harry where Allen's brother-in-law says to him, "You don't care about the 6 million." Allen's response was, "Of course I do since all records are meant to be broken." Poor teachers. Soon the entire social safety net will more or less cease to exist especially for the poor. Soon they will have no access to health care, housing subsidies, or food stamps. Yet teachers will still be blamed for low standardized test scores. Interestingly, whenever I substitute in high schools and students are asked to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance, no one stands. They may not be able to articulate the current situation but they certainly know the fix is in.

A trend/qualitative thing I see are americans, constantly loudly asking the librarians for books about being happy, how to be happy, staying happy, thinking happy, algorithms to being happy, 50 ways to embrace happiness, spiritual happiness, happiness modules, etc...

Most of the patrons return the books to the librarian/s, and state loudly and with agitation, that the bks didn't help them, and they ask for the latest gossip rag or american "news" paper.

Not-standing strikes me as being potentially significant. Next time you have the oppty, perhaps ask a couple of kids (in a non-accusatory way) why they didn't stand. I for one wd be very curious to know if this has any political meaning.

You might also try this assignment, which was done some yrs ago in a high schl in Okinawa (I discuss this in my Japan bk): ask the students to write down their hopes and dreams, what they want for themselves. In the case of Okinawa, they began to cry, because they didn't really believe they had a future. American students probably won't cry, but they might get very angry.

It goes back a very long way. Assimilation notwithstanding (when it did occur), Jews always come off as different, in a # of significant ways, and difference tends to provoke fear. The historical record is that if a society is faced with a cultural or (esp.) economic crisis, the Jews are the easiest target on wh/to unload anxiety. (Oddly enuf, in ages past, it was Islamic nations that were most tolerant of the Jews in their midst.) I've been impressed, over these 11 yrs, at the anti-Semitism directed at me on this blog. Of course, I'm going to generate hatred in general, because Americans don't like to hear that the nation is badly fucked up and irredeemable; but it's interesting that for many haters out there, this is tied to my being Jewish, when there is no logical connection (one can be a declinist w/o being Jewish, quite obviously, and most American Jews are not declinists). But then, logic is hardly part of the equation. Historically, people caught up in rage and pain tend to see the Jews as the cause of their misery. "Die Juden sind unser Unglück" is a familiar refrain, not just for the 3rd Reich.

Anyway, I've gotta run; busy day ahead of me: I need to kill a few Christian kids, drain their blood, and bake some matzoh.

[From the values page of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity]"Pi Kappa Alpha is dedicated to developing men of integrity, intellect, and high moral character and to fostering a truly lifelong fraternal experience."

Members of the Chico State University (CA) face federal criminal charges for cutting down 32 trees in the Lassen National Forest the weekend of 21 April 2017 during the course of a pledge initiation ritual. Pi Kappa Alpha was founded at Mr. Jefferson's university in 1868.http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/crime/article151357332.html

Under the heading "You don't have to be American to be an asshole":A South African gamehunter and his clients come upon a herd of females and their calves on a Zimbabwe game preserve. Charged by three cows, the gamehunter is surprised by a fourth attacking from the side. When one of the party shoots that elephant, it collapses on the gamehunter and kills him.http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/05/21/south-african-hunter-crushed-death-elephant/

And it's déja vu all over again, as a Minnesota miss, miffed at faulty French fries, deploys Mace against the weary Wendy's drive-thru worker:http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2017/05/19/woman-maced-wendys-employees/

I don't always agree with blogger Fred Reed, and the development of sex bots strikes me an extreme form of techno douchebaggery. That said, ol' Fred makes some interesting asndrelevant points concerning our discussion of the deteriorating relations between men and women:

"It used to be that men had jobs and money, and women had that, so they married to let each get some of what the other had. The woman had to be agreeable as a selling point. Now women have jobs and don’t need men, or to be pleasant. Some are nice anyway, but it’s no longer a design feature. Of course they often end up old and alone with a cat somewhere on upper Connecticut Avenue, but they don’t figure this out until too late. Anyway, they stopped being agreeable. They learned from feminists that everything wrong in their lives was the fault of men."

There there is this:

"...in many foreign countries women are feminine, agreeable, realistic, often delightful, and not waiting to get in touch with their inner cobras. They appreciate a decent man who doesn’t hit them, cares about the kids, and provides a good life. They consequently behave in way that makes him willing to come home at night."

Pretty good article on why men are opting out. It makes perfect sense from a cost benefit analysis. Why enter into a contractual agreement when the adjudication of the dissolution of said agreement is likely to leave you financially devastated and the courts and law enforcement overwhelming side with women? Once a guy says no to marriage and a family, his financial obligations shrink considerably. You don’t need a high powered job if you don’t intend to raise a family. More and more, higher education environments are being tailored to what women want with double standards the norm. The office job, that a degree will most likely lead to, isn’t much better. Again, you will have to adjust to an environment only a weak beta male could love. However, let’s say you are willing to do this in exchange for the paycheck you need to keep a family. Lets say you are a good boy that works long hours and spends your free time doing whatever your wife tells you and occasionally you get to hang out with male friends, after asking her permission, of course. Well, you get to deal with a wife that secretly, (or not so secretly) resents you for being weak. She may even cheat on you with some alpha male who “made her feel special”, and if it goes to court, well, tough shit, you still lose your kids, your paycheck and your mental well being. After all, it’s your fault for “not meeting her needs.” Is there really any mystery as to why men are opting out?

I went to Merida, Mexico last week and it was amazing. It has the highest quality of life of any city in Mexico. Open-air dancing at night, history, cenotes, warm weather....I think I will go back to live....plus I have a girlfriend in Mexico who wants me to come and live over there.

Vincent- I agree with you. I am 'fully ethnic' and I can feel the hostility in the stores, etc. It's very draining. Good luck on emigrating, I'm on the same path.

MB and wafer community,My first thought about the internet was I have the world's encyclopedia at my fingertips and have some how managed to not fall into the video game/porn black hole of idiocracy since the days of windows 3.2. As for fones, I think it's amazing to have a clock,timer, stopwatch, camera, calculator, calendar/date book, notepad etc. etc. available in this little gizmo that also acts as a telephone, telegraph, and answering machine.

I suppose the key is don't get trapped by an app, heh heh. Tool vs. crutch sorta thing?

"Our constitutional rights—due process, habeas corpus, privacy, a fair trial, freedom from exploitation, fair elections and dissent—have been taken from us by judicial fiat. These rights exist only in name. The vast disconnect between the purported values of the state and reality renders political discourse absurd."

Again Hedges fails to consider that most Americans don't care about any of this.

On Tuesday, seventh-grader Lizeth Villanueva got the “most likely to become a terrorist” award from her school teacher.

It was supposed to be a joke, part of a mock end-of-the-year awards ceremony at Anthony Aguirre Junior High in Channelview, TX where a group of teachers hand certificates to students. Lizeth, 13, said her teacher “just laughed” when she signed and handed her the certificate, just one day after the Manchester arena terrorist attack in Britain.

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About Me

Morris Berman is well known as an innovative cultural historian and social critic. He has taught at a number of universities in Europe and North America, and has held visiting endowed chairs at Incarnate Word College (San Antonio), the University of New Mexico, and Weber State University. During 1982-88 he was the Lansdowne Professor in the History of Science at the University of Victoria, British Columbia. Berman won the Governor’s Writers Award for Washington State in 1990, the Rollo May Center Grant for Humanistic Studies in 1992, and the Neil Postman Award for Career Achievement in Public Intellectual Activity (from the Media Ecology Association) in 2013. He is the author of a trilogy on the evolution of human consciousness–-The Reenchantment of the World (1981), Coming to Our Senses (1989), and Wandering God: A Study in Nomadic Spirituality (2000)–and in 2000 his Twilight of American Culture was named a “Notable Book” by the New York Times Book Review. Dr. Berman relocated to Mexico in 2006, and during 2008-9 was a Visiting Professor at the Tecnologico de Monterrey, Mexico City.